Wednesday, January 25, 2017

This year I made a Good Reads goal of reading fifteen books over the next twelve months. And I am excited to be able to say that I have officially finished the first book! And since I love to share my opinions on books and movies on this lovely blog I decided I would review it!

The first book I read this year was the novel As Old As Time by Liz Braswell. Which is the third novel in Braswell's series A Twisted Tale. I have not read the first two books in this series though because I believe that they are all stand alone books that have the common theme of re-telling traditional Disney movies.

In this case the book re-told the story of The Beauty and the Beast which is one of my all time favorite Disney movies. The twist in this novel is that the Enchantress who be-witches the Beast is actually Belle's mother. Together Belle and the Beast have to break the curse and try to uncover the mystery of the real reason the Enchantress cursed the beast.

This novel is broken into three parts. The first part is written in Flashbacks where we see Maurice and Belle's mother meet and fall in love. But it also re-tells the first part of The Beauty and the Beast. The re-telling is pretty much exactly what we see in the animated classic. During this part I question whether I wanted to put it down and give up or continue on.

When I got to the second part I was glad I did. This is when the novel starts to twist on the original story and bring life to a new story. I was also really excited for this part because I was hoping to get a better idea of why Belle and the Beast were such a perfect match (But more on that later). While at the same time keeping to the original story when we saw what Maurice was going through.

The final part of the novel was a little bit of a let down. By this point I had pretty much guessed why everything happened the way it had happened. And was even disappointed by the answer to one of the mysteries. The last chapter of the book made want a sequel though because Braswell left it open for Belle and the Beast to start a whole new adventure. But from what I've seen online there doesn't seem to be a sequel in the works.

Now the piece of the book I was most excited about was to really get to see what made Belle and the Beast such an amazing couple. I mean in a book that is almost 500 pages long we had to get an in-depth look at the characters. But in that regards I was disappointed. I learned a little more about Belle as a person. And good amount more about the Beast's past. But I didn't romantically ship them. I didn't find myself hoping they'd get together...I would have been just as happy to see them shake hands and go there separate ways. That was something that disappointed me to no ends because they are such an iconic Disney couple.

Overall I rated this book a 3.75 out of 5. It was very close to making it to 4 stars but the slow start and the lack of romantic connection between the leads did hurt it in my ratings. With that being said I know everyone has their own taste so I would recommend this book to people who like fantasy or fairy tale novels and someone with an open mind when it comes to telling the story in a different way. Although I WOULD NOT recommend this book to anyone who is a big fan of Disney's Beauty and the Beast and who wouldn't want to see the story change.

Monday, January 16, 2017

Guess what? I wrote this post almost a month ago and forgot to hit publish. LOL. But no seriously guess what!

I graduated college! After four and half years of college I have finally graduated! And it feel absolutely amazing! This last semester, especially, has been a lot of work but it'll be worth it.

For those of you guys wondering I got a bachelor of science in Liberal Studies with concentrations in communication, media studies and creative writing. And no I'm not going into journalism or news production. I do have a future career in mind but since the career is in field that requires a lot of confidentially because of that I'm not comfortable discussing exactly what it is online. I'm currently in the process of looking for a job and it may make it that I will be moving across the country which is really exciting. When I know where I'll be heading I'll let you guys know, at least a general location.

As for the day itself it was so much fun. I started the day out by getting ready, to which I actually filmed my first Get Ready With Me video on my YouTube channel (You can check it out here). Then we headed to school and got a prime parking space. I gave Mama Judy directions to the theatre when graduation was taking place and then headed to the place where we line up.

I don't know if every school does it this way but my school has us line up by school but other then that its free range has to where you sit/stand. Right as I walked in I get a text message from my friend Chris asking me where I was and he told me where he was. I went up to where he was standing. I ended up lining up with the 3 other graduates from the Media Studies department, which was good because I had so much fun with them.

We headed into the theater right on time. I saw Mama Judy while I was walking in and she was already crying.

We didn't have a lot of speakers at the graduation itself so it went by rather quickly. My favorite speech was done by the president of the university, where it talked about intental kindness when all around so much hate is happening. I think its an idea that we should all carry around with us.

When it was time to get the degrees we again were called by school with the school of arts and sciences going last. When the finally called us we all whooped and "got lit" as the kid in front of me said. As each person went up they got whoops from the different people in the audience who knew them. When they finally declared us college graduation we whooped and went wild.

After graduation finished I met my parents outside to take pictures. And I made Mama Judy be an Instagram Mama while I posed for some Instagram worthy pictures. If you're interested in following me on Instagram you can by searching @judy_judy94.

When we finished taking pictures I went to say good-bye to my boss. I don't think I ever mentioed it on my blog but for the past year and half I have worked as a student employee in my college's residence life department. I wanted to stop and say good-bye to my boss because she had such an impact on my last couple of years.

After saying good-bye to my boss we headed back to my hometown where we had dinner with some of our close family and friends. It was so much fun celebrating with some really important people in my life. Plus it was at one of my favorite restaurant where the staff knows us by name which made it extra special.

Graduation was such an amazing day and I am so grateful for all the people who have supported me over the past four and half years. And for anyone who has read my college adventures which I have been sharing since the end of my freshmen year thank you. I can't wait to share the next chapter with you guys.

I also want to give a special shout to Natalie, who was my first blogging friend all the way back during the first summer of the World According to Emma. Natalie and I had actually went to the same college and both graduated this December. Congrats Natalie! You can check out her blog by clicking here.

A now enjoy all the awesome pictures and a video snap that I'm adding in.

Me with my degree folder

One of my Instagram inspired pictures even if it hasn't been shared yet